Selena slipped under Ilior’s arm to put herself between them. “Enough! Ilior, let him go! Julian, put the pistol away. Now!”
The Vai’Ensai released Julian with agonizing slowness and Selena was certain Julian was going to pull the trigger anyway. But when the captain was free he stepped back, taking in deep breaths without panic or loss of composure. He put his flintlock back in his belt and straightened his shirt that had been rumpled, all the while meeting the Vai’Ensai’s gaze. His expression blank, his eyes unreadable, but his trembling hands and tense jaw said that he was seething with fury. He shrugged his black long coat into place and nodded at Svoz who lowered his spear.
“You have three days to find your witch and kill her,” Julian told Selena, his voice flat and emotionless. “Then I sail. With or without you.”
He strode away without another word, Svoz at his side. The rest of the crew remained, their eyes on Selena, before Julian began barking orders. The crew moved off; Whistle the slowest, his eyes full of worry. The captain snapped at him and he jumped and scurried away, giving her one last glance over his shoulder. Niven remained by her side.
“I’ll go with you,” he blurted. His gaze darted to the jungle of Saliz and back to her again. “It’s my duty.”
“You will stay here,” she told him. “This is my battle and I will face it alone. I will not put your life in jeopardy.” The adherent started to protest but she silenced him with her hand held up. “I will not.”
“I can’t help but feel a terrible dereliction of duty,” he said. “But worse, I feel relieved. If I weren’t such a coward, I’d insist on going with you.”
“You are no coward. Your duty will be to take care of the crew until I return.” Her eyes sought the quarterdeck where Julian stood at the wheel. She saw Niven follow her gaze and quickly looked away. “How did Svoz come to serve Julian?”
“I don’t know, but if I had to guess, it would be when you fell into the water,” Niven said. He cleared his throat. “Captain Tergus was quite frantic over your accident.” He inclined his head and said in a low voice. “Quite.”
“Aye, frantic over not getting paid,” Ilior said.
Niven frowned and looked about to say more, but the Vai’Ensai glowered at him.
Selena watched the exchange while her pulse quickened. Frantic?
“Never mind,” she said, drawing herself up. “Please retrieve our belongings,” she commanded Ilior.
He seemed to relax ever so slightly. His mouth was turned down but Selena could see the satisfied smile in his eyes. “As you wish.”
Sebastian watched Selena, Ilior, and the adherent converse briefly. The Paladin glanced his way, just for a moment and he swallowed hard. His throat ached where Ilior had choked him. He had almost killed the dragonman. He had been a hair’s breadth away from pulling the trigger when lack of air had made his vision swim with dancing lights. Then Selena had appeared.
And so I didn’t shoot.
He lit a cigarillo; he hadn’t had one in days and it scratched his raw throat.
Let it happen. Let it all happen, as it should. She’ll kill the Bazira and the island will kill her. My last job…
He tried to conjure the memory of his secret atoll and couldn’t.
“To the Deeps with it,” he muttered. He watched Selena descend belowdecks. “She can have it.”
“Dispensing gifts?” Svoz appeared beside him at the helm, hulking and red and glistening as though he’d bathed in blood.
“No,” Sebastian said.
“I do wish you hadn’t been so rash with the dragonman. I was ever so eager to enter the jungle with the godly bitch and kill many, many things.”
“We’ll go in.”
“Will we?”
“Aye.” Sebastian exhaled smoke from his nose in twin plumes. “To collect their bones.”
Selena and Ilior left the beach at midday. Niven watched from the deck of the Storm as Selena marched across the rough, rocky sand and into the jungle where she was swallowed by the dense foliage. Ilior disappeared after her. The adherent longed to cry out, to tell Selena to stop, but the words stuck in his throat.
You can still go, he reprimanded himself. Get in the skiff and start rowing. It’s that easy.
But his fear was like strong hands, holding him down and gagging his mouth.
The party left behind was sullen, tense, and out of sorts. The crew eyed the waters around Saliz warily, jumping at each ripple in the silt, but Captain Tergus was the worst. His gaze had followed Selena long after the Paladin was lost from sight. Niven could have sworn the same longing to plunge in after her skirted behind the captain’s eyes. When Julian finally tore his gaze from the jungle, it was to curse that his beloved ship was aground. The Storm canted to the port side, its prow mangled, its yards missing, and now its deck was smashed. Niven was afraid for the tide’s return, fearful that Julian would take his ship and sail it away from Saliz’s dangers, leaving Selena stranded.
If they sail, I’ll go after Paladin Koren, Niven vowed. I cannot remain the coward. But marching alone into Saliz’s interior meant certain death. I can catch up to her if I go now.
He gnawed his lower lip, trying to muster the will to stand up, to break the grip of fear than anchored him down. Time slipped past and still he did not move.
The inherent nature of a thing cannot be changed, he thought bitterly. Easier to turn a mountain into a feather than to give me courage.
It was then he saw the figure at the shore, some hundred spans or so away. A woman, judging by the slight figure and billowing material of her simple white dress. Her hair was cut to her chin and as black as her eyes that appeared, from the distance, like two large pits of shadow. She must be wearing a pair of goggles, Niven thought. The woman stood still, calmly observing the party on the beach.
“Captain,” Niven murmured.
“I see her. Svoz,” Julian said. “Bring her to me. Alive.”
The woman tilted her head as though she were listening to something on the wind, and then walked back into the jungle, unhurried.
Svoz glided down from the grounded ship and loped along the shore to where the woman had been standing. He then turned to follow her trail into the rain forest.
“Is she the Bazira?” Julian asked.
It took Niven a moment to realize the captain was addressing him.
“Uh, no. I don’t believe so, Captain. She was not dressed in the Bazira raiment. And while I haven’t Paladin Koren’s talent for sensing our darker brethren, I did not feel the woman is dangerous. For what that’s worth.”
The captain snorted to show exactly what he thought that assessment was worth and Niven drew himself up. “Perhaps she is from the Guild. The goggles she was wearing would seem to suggest so.”
Julian rubbed his chin. “Maybe. A castaway. But why not seek us?”
“Pardons, Captain, but to a lone woman, a ship full of sailing men would not seem the safest situation in which to put herself. To say nothing of the sirrak.”
Julian smirked. “I should have sent you as envoy, then. She’d know she had nothing to fear.”
Niven felt his face redden. Svoz reemerged from the jungle, alone.